If you enjoyed Sonic Unleashed's day stages, you will fall in love with Sonic Colors.
Sonic Colors' new writing staff decided to create a much more simplistic story, much like Sonic's days of old. Simply put, Robotnik has created a massive space amusement park tied together with planets as an apology for his past evildoing. Sonic and Tails instantly see this as a cover up for a much more sinister purpose involving little alien creatures with unique powers and it is up to them to stop Robotnik once more. The more simplistic story is actually more fitting thanks to the excellent writing, which makes this game feel more like a good Saturday morning cartoon show. The writing manages to break a good chuckle or two and it certainly likes to poke fun of the series' past quirks.
Sonic Colors gameplay is very much similar to the ever popular Sonic Unleashed day stages. Your goal, like in every other Sonic game, is to simply reach the end as fast as you can. The gameplay shifts from 3-D to 2.5-D perspectives, though much of the game is in the 2.5-D perspective. The gameplay is just as fast paced and fun as Sonic Unleashed's day stages and it certainly offers a good challenge. There are a total of six acts in each world as well as a boss at the end. Along the way you will come across the game's main gimmick: The Whisps. These are the aliens that Robotnik is after and each alien has their own unique ability allowing Sonic to turn into a lazer, spiky ball, drill, a hungry purple demon, rocket, hovering ball, and even a cube. These Whisps aren't absolutely essential to reach the goal, but rather they take you to alternate routes and help you find hidden red rings.
Five red rings are scattered throughout each level. The only way you can reach certain rings is to have the right Whisp unlocked. Collecting these rings unlocks stages in Eggman's Sonic Simulator. Here you control either a robot Sonic or your Mii and also reach the end and touch the goal ring. The Sonic Simulator can also be played cooperatively. The Sonic Simulator stages aren't as enjoyable as the main stages in single player and the coop is a bit lacking. Collecting all the rings and unlocking all of the levels unlocks a very special surprise.
There are only a few real issues to be found in Sonic Colors. First come the controls. Sonic certainly controls a little easier than in Sonic Unleashed where his movement was a little slippery, but his jumping feels rather stiff and you don't have much mid-air control. This can be a problem at certain platforming sections, causing you to fall to your doom more than you would like. The game's bosses are repetitive and also rather easy to deal with. All of the game's challenge comes from the stages themselves. Finally, the game is rather short. You can beat this game in about five to six hours, and that doesn't include trying to collect all of the hidden extras. Thankfully, since the levels are enjoyable and they give you a reason to go back and replay them, replay value is very high.
I think it goes without notice that this is, without a doubt, one of the most gorgeous-looking Wii games ever. The game's environments are incredibly detailed, bright, colorful, well designed and polished down to the tiniest detail. The character models also look fantastic and are just as polished as what you would find on the Xbox 360 or PS3. The game has also replaced the 4Kids voice cast and has now given us the boulder punching master himself Chris Redfield as the new voice of Sonic and a very talented woman with a ton of voice-over work as the voice of Tails (whom actually made him sound like a boy for the first time in six years). Both of these two do a fantastic job as well as returning actor Mike Pollock as Dr. Robotnik. The music is simply some of the best you will hear out of the series, showing off a variety of funky rhythms, jazz, rock, and orchestral soundtracks.
To sum things up:
PROS:
-One of the most beautiful-looking Wii games created
-Excellent music
-Great voice acting
-Good, simplistic story accompanied by great writing
-Fun, fast paced gameplay
-Good level design
-Generally good control
CONS:
-Stiff jumping mechanics
-Short game
-Easy, repetitive bosses
What few problems this game has can easily be overlooked by the fact that Sonic Colors is an fantastic game. This is certainly the best 3-D Sonic game to date and it is certainly a must own for Sonic fans, as well as a good rental for everyone else.